The Kansas City Chiefs made the first coaching hire of the NFL offseason, but it was a questionable hire.

Andy Reid has been a successful coach in the NFL. But the key words in that sentence are “has been.” Reid might win big again in the NFL, but if you watched the Philadelphia Eagles the past two seasons, Reid looked like a coach whose best days had already passed.

In 2011, the Eagles were expected to be Super Bowl contenders. They finished 8-8.

This season, the Eagles were expected to at least challenge for a playoff berth. They finished 4-12, losing 10 of their last 11.

The Eagles weren’t a team bereft of talent. They were a team that underachieved, that at times looked short on passion.

That should concern Chiefs CEO Clark Hunt, who pursued Reid as if he were Vince Lombardi and signed him Friday to a five-year contract. Reid has won in the NFL, but in a what-have-you-done-lately business, Reid hasn’t won a playoff game since the 2008 season.

Reid made a number of mistakes during the end of his tenure in Philadelphia that proved costly. The biggest error was moving Juan Castillo, his longtime offensive line coach, to defensive coordinator in 2011—a decision that hurt the Eagles on both sides of the ball. Castillo had never been a defensive coach in the NFL and Reid eventually fired him in mid-October this season, but it was too late to keep the Eagles from sinking.

Former Eagles linebacker Jeremiah Trotter, who played for Reid for seven seasons, told 97.5 The Fanatic in Philadelphia that opposing coaches regularly got the best of Reid.

"If it come down to both teams were even, talent-wise, I think the opponent’s team would win if it came down to coaching," Trotter said. "Andy Reid got outcoached in a lot of games man, a lot of big games."

Everyone should feel badly for Reid in regard to the loss of his son Garrett, who died of a heroin overdose in August. Obviously, Reid and his family decided they were on board with Reid jumping right into another job, rather than taking time off. That decision should be respected.

However, the template for today’s NFL coach is to find someone bright, passionate and energetic, capable of enjoying an 8-10 year run of success, before some of that fire dissipates. Three of the past four Super Bowl-winning coaches fit that mold—Mike McCarthy, Sean Payton and Mike Tomlin. Jim Harbaugh, John Harbaugh and Mike Smith are also cut out of that cloth.

At 54, Reid is still young enough, especially when you consider that the NFL’s oldest coach, 66-year-old Tom Coughlin, won last year’s Super Bowl. But is Reid motivating today’s players as he once did? It didn’t appear that way the last two years in Philadelphia. Many Eagles talked about how much they respected Reid, how good of a man he was, and how much they enjoyed playing for him. But you couldn’t tell that on Sundays. Better for a coach to have his players loathe him and win, rather than love him and lose.

One candidate the Chiefs should have interviewed is Broncos offensive coordinator Mike McCoy, who knows the AFC West. McCoy has shown flexibility, changing the offense last season when Tim Tebow became the Broncos’ starter, and now working with Peyton Manning as the Broncos ride an 11-game winning streak into the playoffs.

If someone else hires McCoy, and he turns into the next McCarthy or Payton, or one of the Harbaughs, the Chiefs may regret it. Look for Reid to hire former Cleveland Browns general manager Tom Heckert or Green Bay Packers director of football operations John Dorsey as his GM. Like he had in Philadelphia, Reid will have power over personnel decisions, which means the GM will report to him.

Reid’s best times in Philadelphia were from 2000-2008. Over the past four seasons, Reid was 33-33 (including 0-2 in the playoffs), and he was 12-20 the past two seasons.

That does not sound like a coach the Chiefs needed to hire so quickly. Reid used to be one of the NFL’s best coaches. Now he must prove he still is.